Motorists paying to use a public car-park in Nenagh are to be stopped from using the facility because local public service staff and county councillors want the site for free parking for themselves.
Drivers paying for public car-parking in the precincts of the town's courthouse will within weeks be forced to find fee-paying car-parking elsewhere because North Tipperary's county councillors and their staff want to continue to avail of free parking on the site when spaces become reduced in the near future.
The council's transport director, Mr Karl Cashen, said the move was necessary because spaces would be significantly reduced when machinery was moved on to the site to carry out restoration works on the courthouse.
The works, to be carried out by Duggan Construction Ltd, of Templemore, could take up to a year. They are necessary to upgrade the rundown courthouse which was forced to close four years ago when a lump of mortar fell from the ceiling while the Circuit Court was in session.
Defending the decision to stop the public using the car park, Mr Cashen said: "It's normal for public servants to get free car-parking at their place of work."
However, he conceded that councillors and staff could also avail of free car-parking on the site on Saturdays, a day when the majority of council staff are off work and when paid parking exists in all other Nenagh council-owned car parks and central streets of the town.
The plan to stop fee-paying motorists from using the car park was passed without opposition by councillors at a council meeting last Monday.
Nenagh Chamber of Commerce expressed disappointment that the car-park was being closed to the public. Its president, Mr Joe Coleman O'Connor, said: "There is already a dire shortage of car parking spaces in Nenagh and this is now going to make the situation worse."
He urged the council "to bring equality to the situation" by introducing free parking on Saturdays in all council-owned car-parks. He called for free parking for the first half-hour to be introduced in all areas of the town from Monday to Saturday.